Holidays and losing weight

So the holidays are coming up and I’m pushing for at least 10 pounds of weight loss. Here are some tips and tricks to get you ready for the holidays as well as fighting from picking up that last piece of pumpkin pie.

My mother and her sister Linda -- Inlaws

The holidays are wonderful if you are not trying to lose your weight pass them. Let’s face it, its hard to resist that last piece of turkey. In my case, since I’m a vegetarian, my mother piles mash potatoes and baked macaroni and cheese on my plate as I reach for the steamed broccoli. Thanks Mom! That is just what I needed, another 5 laps to run right after Thanksgiving.

How to say yes but actually NO

So your family takes Thanksgiving or any holiday dinner seriously. If your mother cooks, she spends all of her time in the kitchen right up until it’s time to eat. I appreciate my mothers hard work and do not want to upset her so I eat and eat, later, regretting it all.

Try this, when your mother or father says: “Hey, I forgot to put gravy on your plate”. Just tell your parents you love their cooking and happy to spend the holidays with them but you are watching your weight and teaching yourself self discipline. If you have parents who are proud of discipline, they will be amazed to hear this and support your wishes. If you have parents that are watching their weight then they will already understand.

If you have parents like my mother-in-law who likes everyone to be plump otherwise she thinks they are sick, this is a tough cookie to chew. Unconditional love is a great place to start. Be honest, tell your parents you are watching your weight and have realistic weight loss goals. If they haven’t seen you in a while and do not want to ruin the night, they will let the situation go.

Portion Control

Portion means everything, what cannot fit in your hand is too much for your belly. I know, it seems so little but our stomach is relatively small, about the size of an adults fist. The stomach can expand making room for extra food but that’s when you have eaten too much.

Push hard until the deadline

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. There are ways to train your body to burn the calories fast before Dooms Day (Thanksgiving) comes. Try taking brisk walks in the morning to get a head start on burning calories throughout the entire day. The best time of day to workout is in the morning. You will jump start your day with getting your heart rate up as well as boosting energy and work performance. Doing this will definitely wake you up.

Other awesome ways to burn calories with cardio is running stairs. If you have stairs in your neighborhood, take advantage and use them. The more stairs you climb, the better. You can even set interval workouts with stairs. Try running up 5 stairs, walking 5 stairs, and stepping up every other stair until you reach the top. Interval workouts are a great way to shed off those extra pounds when you reach the so called “plateau”. Sometimes our weight loss goal will be 5 pounds away and we struggle to get those last 5 pounds off. Well, that’s because our body has become accustomed to the way we workout. If this happens, you have to trick your body. I’m not saying to deceive your body but we all started with a goal and want to finish it.

Performing various workouts that our body is not accustomed to will indeed help shed those last 5 pounds. Try it, jog on Monday. Dance on Tuesday. Do a Cardio Kick Box DVD workout on Wednesday. Run stairs on Thursday. Perform weight training on Friday. Take a Zumba Class on Saturday and Yoga on Sunday.

Thanksgiving Day

So it’s Dooms Day and you didn’t get a chance to push hard right up until the deadline. Here are some tricks on how to digest your food efficiently and maybe have some of Mother Natures plants help out with fat digestion.

Ginger

Ginger is known to work great for digestion. It works by helping to stimulate saliva, bile, and gastric juice production. If you are going to drink Ginger tea, find good quality, preferably organic. It is important to drink a small cup of Ginger tea before eating. You may also sip on Ginger tea while you are eating.

Lemongrass

Lemongrass is widely known for it’s detoxifying properties, it will help to cleanse; liver pancreas, kidneys, bladder and digestive tract. It will also promote better digestion.

The greatest properties about Lemongrass is that it increases urination which helps remove toxins, excess water, and fats.

Like Ginger, drink a cup of tea before eating or during your meal.

Organic Diabetes Tea (Discontinued)

Our tea is called Diabetes Tea because it aids with type 2 diabetes but it will also help with sugar cravings, help with digestion, and increase urination. I have tried this mixture of herbs a couple of times even right before I go to bed as a good-night tea. One of the ingredients, Bitter Melon, is full of bitter compounds that helps with digestion.

Remember to always drink tea for digesting before your meal or while you are eating.

I forgot to mention Swedish Bitter

Swedish Bitter is not only a life elixir but it also aids with digestion because its full of bitter compounds. When I eat out and my body did not agree with what I ate, I carry Swedish Bitter with me.

After drinking a teaspoon with 1/4 to a half cup of water, I feel much better. The next morning, my tummy is flat again. Swedish Bitter took care of the bloating. “Ahhhh, relief.

Beer

Beer also helps improve digestion but can also add to your amount of calories consumed for the day. No wonder Monks drank beer. It is said that during times of fasting, Monks were allowed to drink beer. It provided nourishment for the day.

The countdown of Christmas

Another major holiday is on its way and I’m feeling pretty strong about my goals. As long as I keep my body moving even if I’m performing three separate small workouts equaling 15 minutes each day, I should do well.

Good luck to all and I hope this is valuable information.

Until next time, Happy Pound Dropping!